kbinnz - Harry's New Home

Percy's color rose even higher, but that didn't stop him from returning her kiss with enthusiasm. Harry groaned and looked away.

"WHAT IN MERLIN'S NAME IS GOING ON HERE?" Upon first turning the corner and beholding the spectacle that confronted her, Professor McGonagall had wondered if she had finally lost her mind. Seeing two prefects snogging over the inert form of the DADA professor while The Boy Who Lived stood to one side looking bored, she had wondered if she would need to consult Poppy.

But no, at her words the two prefects jumped apart, and Harry started in surprise. "Professor!" he yelped. "What're you doing here?"

"I think the proper question is what on earth are YOU doing, Mr Potter? And you, Miss Jones, Mr Weasley? Ignoring for the moment that public displays of affection are hardly appropriate for prefects, why are you not summoning assistance for poor Professor Umbridge?"

"ErmтАж" Percy began to stutter while Jones quickly tapped her prefect badge with her wand.

"What happened to her anyway?" McGonagall demanded, stooping over the groaning witch who was beginning to come around.

"Ah, it was, uh, a, er, Stupefy," Percy admitted.

Minerva's wand was out. "From whom?" Could Death Eaters have infiltrated the castle?

"Erm, me actually," Percy admitted.

"What!!" Once again, Minerva wondered if she were hallucinating. "You stunned a professor?"

"She was attacking us!" Jones put in. "Percy saved us."

"Miss Jones, I find this entire story difficult to believe! Are you aware that attacking a faculty member is grounds for automatic suspension, if not expulsion? At the very least, you will both lose your prefect badges and тАУ "

"What is going on here?" Snape swooped around the corner, wand out and looking ferocious.

"Da!" Harry yelled in relief and charged towards the man.

Snape caught him by the shoulders. "Are you all right?" He scanned the little knot of people. Umbridge unconscious; Minerva looking uncharacteristically flustered; Weasley his usual stammering self around Jones; Jones unusually anxious.

"Da, you should've seen it! Percy was great! He saved Jones an' me!" Harry exclaimed.

"What?" Snape's eyes widened. Percy had saved Jones? Now that was unexpected. And where did Umbridge fit in? Had someone attacked the students and she had been injured trying to protect them?

" 'Save' is hardly the term I would use," Minerva interjected tartly. " 'Attack' appears more appropriate." At Snape's look of incomprehension, she explained, "Apparently Mr Weasley stunned Professor Umbridge when Miss Jones and Mr Potter were unable to do so."

"WHAT?!" Jones took an involuntary step back at the expression on her Head of House's face, but Harry just shivered a bit and clung closer to his guardian.

"What. Exactly. Happened. Here?" Snape said, his voice very low and very menacing. The three students all quivered, while behind them, McGonagall helped a groggy Umbridge to her feet.

"Erm, I saw Professor Umbridge firing spells at Davidella and Harry," Percy said, his face now very pale. "So I тАУ I hexed her."

"And why was Professor Umbridge attacking you, Miss Jones?" Snape asked silkily.

"Because I was helping Harry." Jones appeared composed, but there was a slight tremor in her voice which revealed how much the calm exterior was costing her. "He was trying to leave her classroom, and she was trying to make him stay. They were struggling with each other when I came up."

Now everyone was looking at Harry. "And why were you struggling against Professor Umbridge?" Snape demanded.

It was Harry's turn to flush. But his da had said he could always tell him the truth, so he did. " 'Cause I wouldn't do my detention."

Snape's eyebrows drew together. "And just what was this detention?" he pressed.

"Lines."

Jones and Percy exchanged a horrified glance. Had they just gotten themselves expelled because The Boy Who Lived had decided he was too good to write lines?

"With this," Harry added, holding up the quill that he somehow тАУ despite everything тАУ still clutched in his hand.

McGonagall's gasp echoed throughout the hallway, and all three children drew back in fear at the expression on Snape's face. Then they caught sight of McGonagall's, and they decided Snape wasn't so scary after all.

"You have a BLOOD QUILL at my school?" Minerva spun on the shorter witch.

Umbridge struggled to stand upright and brushed herself off fussily. "It's entirely official, I assure you," she snapped. "I am a Ministry official, you know."

Jones marveled at the woman's lack of self-preservation. If Professor McGonagall had been looking at her with that expression, she would have been fleeing for her life, not arguing about government regulations.

"What on earth are you talking about?" McGonagall breathed. "Corporal punishment тАУ"

"I discussed this at length with the Minister before coming here," Umbridge retorted. "Canings have been prohibited by the current headmaster, along with curses, but other forms of chastisement are, in special cases, still acceptable. I was sent here by the Minister to scotch the irresponsible rumors that the Potter child keeps spouting and to ensure that no one pays further attention to his wild claims. The Minister has no time to deal with public unrest that such ridiculous stories cause, to say nothing of the undermining effect it has on his administration, making the Minister look weak and ineffective. The Minister himself assured me that the Blood Quill was fully authorized if lesser measures didn't work to make Potter recant his statements. I'm certain that a few more lines would have shown that boy the error of his ways. Imagine, thinking that he could contradict the Minister of Magic!" Umbridge scoffed.

"A few тАУ more тАУ lines?" Snape echoed, his voice brittle with rage. He snatched Harry's hands up, ignoring the boy's startled yelp, and at the sight of the bloody letters, he grabbed Umbridge by the throat. "YOU WOULD DARE TO USE THIS ON MY CHILD?" he roared, shaking the quill in one hand and the witch in the other.

Minerva managed to drag her homicidal colleague off of the gasping witch and held him at wandpoint. "Severus! Control yourself!" she ordered.

Umbridge's eyes were wide as she clutched her bruised throat. "I hardly expected you to object after you caned the boy for cheating!" she protested. "I was doing you a favor by helping to discipline your ward. Obviously you're well aware that it takes stern measures to get through to such a wicked and arrogant child!"

Percy and Jones each hung onto an arm, while Harry clung to his da's waist, and they managed тАУ barely тАУ to keep him from assaulting Umbridge again.

"Severus! Severus!" Minerva finally managed to get his attention. "Enough! Take Harry and the others to Poppy to be checked and treated. I will take This Woman to the Headmaster. Meet us at Albus' office."

Snape allowed himself to be pulled away by the children, still fulminating with rage. The students exchanged wide eyed stares, but knew better than to try to speak to the Potion Master when he was in this state.

Snape finally calmed down enough to think rationally. "Did she hurt you anywhere else?" he demanded of Harry.

"I don't think so," he replied, rubbing his hand. "She tried to grab me an' all, but mostly she just got my robe."

"And you, Miss Jones?"

"No, Professor," she answered. "None of her spells made it through our shields."

"Hmf. You'll still be checked over," Snape ordered and no one was brave enough to protest.

"H-how'd you know we were in trouble?" Harry asked timidly, looking up at his da.

"Miss Jones summoned me," he replied.

"You did?" Percy asked in surprise, turning to Jones.

She nodded. "Every Slytherin prefect's badge can summon the professor. You just need to tap it with your wand, and he's alerted that he's needed at an emergency. Doesn't yours work the same way?"